The invention relates generally to decorative lights and, more particularly, to fiber optic based decorative lights or ornaments.
Fiber optic Christmas trees are well known such as the one illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,422,797 issued Jun. 6, 1995 to Shattan. In a fiber optic Christmas tree, individual optical fibers, or strands, are arranged on the tree to provide illumination. A light source is, e.g., located at the base of the tree. The light source can utilize a color-wheel, of one or more colors, so that the color of the light emitted by each strand changes over time.
Unfortunately, a portion of the consumer market does not care for fiber optic trees for the simple reason that they “lack light.” In other words, the intensity of the light output from each of the strands of optical fiber is dimmer in comparison to a more conventional Christmas tree utilizing electric light bulbs for illumination.
However, electric light sets for use as decorative items on, e.g., a Christmas tree, are not without their own problems. For example, although one can typically change their blinking frequency—one cannot change the overall color pattern once the electric lights are on the Christmas tree. In addition, and of even more concern, is their reliability—an electric bulb may fail. Indeed, depending on the design of the light set, a single electric bulb failure may cause a number of other bulbs to stop working. In this case, repair is somewhat problematic as one must first locate the failed bulb, which can be time-consuming. In addition, if a failure occurs while the light set is on the Christmas tree—intermixed with garland and other ornaments—it may be very inconvenient and difficult to repair. As a result of the reliability issue, common sense dictates that a string of bulbs be tested beforehand—again a labor and time-consuming effort. Regardless, spending the time to test an electric bulb set before placement on the Christmas tree does not ensure a bulb will not fail once arranged on the Christmas tree.
In view of the above, further improvements in decorative lighting arrangements would be desirable.